Health and beauty shoppers most likely to be repeat purchasers: study

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It’s no wonder that retailers tend to be obsessed with customer acquisition, because new customers are like new friends—validation that, in a world filled with strife and chaos, you’ve managed to connect with someone; a cause for hope, a harbinger of good times to come.

Until they ghost you.

A new report from Bluecore, which provides retailers with technological solutions for shopper identification and customer movement, identifies which retail segments are better at not just acquiring customers, but also keeping them around.

Fickled pink: The report tracked 2023 data for more than 100 retailers over multiple categories, from apparel and toys to beauty and sporting goods, and urged retailers to strategize to convert the one-time-only customers into loyal repeat customers.

“Our data shows that 74% of a retailer’s customers are one-and-done,” according to Bluecore, which dubbed them “fickle shoppers.”

Repeat after spree: Some are more fickle than others, particularly jewelry and luxury brand consumers: Only 9.9% of those who made a first purchase in 2023 made a second purchase that year.

As for who was best at getting customers back for a second purchase, that would be health and beauty brands, with a second-purchase rate of 21.5%, followed by sporting goods and outdoor purveyors (21.2%) and apparel retailers (20.2%).